Danger Room in Afghanistan: Have It Your Way at Bagram?

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Danger Room in Afghanistan: Have It Your Way at Bagram?

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – From a vantage point in the old Soviet control tower at Bagram Airfield, you can, quite literally, see the surge underway: Construction is going on at a frenetic pace here, with earthmovers shuttling to and fro, work crews pouring concrete, and trucks shuttling in fresh building materials. The U.S. military is sinking $220 million into upgrading the faciltities here, and Bagram Airfield is starting to take on a much more permanent look.

Bagram is one of those classic big-box FOBs (forward operating bases) that the grunts like to make fun of: It has a Burger King, a Popeye's franchise, a day spa, and yes, plenty of pecan pie. But according to Brig. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing, places like Bagram may need to scale back on the creature comforts – and shed the fortress America mindset – if the U.S. mission here is to succeed.

"There’s a push underway – and I think this is very powerful – that we need to be careful not to make this Americana," he told Danger Room. "The more we can live more like the Afghan people, the better. We don’t need the creature comforts of home to be happy – and we don’t need the Americanization of our camp to do our jobs. And I see him [Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan] moving us in a direction that I like – in that we might be able to get rid of some of those people who are here on some of those support mission that we don’t have to have."

Kwast said the real challenge is to get the military to adapt to Afghan culture, rather than the other way around. "Let’s maybe live a little bit more like the Afghan people, because maybe, one, they can relate to us much better when we aren’t wearing sunglasses," he said. "They can relate to us a lot better when we aren’t in a metal building that has no windows. They can relate to us much better when they can see us and shake our hand."

That's a very tall order. First, it means leaving the safety and security of the FOB. And it may also mean working more on foot instead of commuting in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. The military's relentless focus on "force protection" will be hard to overcome.

But the real cultural Achilles heel is often language. Too often, I've been out on patrols where there are too few interpreters – or where the interpreters are not trying very hard. (Classic exchange: A company commander asks an village elder what the security situation is like. The elder answers at length. The interpreter offers a few words: "He says that they are fine.") Nearly eight years after the U.S. military arrived here, the lack of troops who are trained in conversational Dari or Pashto suggests a serious failure of vision. If you don't speak the local language, at least a bit, then you are just paying lip service to cultural sensitivity.

According to Kwast, McChrystal is trying to remedy that: A daily videoteleconference for commanders starts with a slide that with a basic Dari or Pashto phrase, and everyone is expected to try to learn it. "That alone says to the Afghan people – 'Hey, we’re trying,'" he said.